Saturday, August 29, 2009

"Johnny Macau"

Our very own "Johnny Macau" traveled to Macau, China, to compete in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Season 3 Main Event at the Grand Lisboa Casino. The following account combines the event's own news reports with John's personal account.

"Day 1: APPT Macau Season 3 SMASHES prize pool record

Over half a million American dollars -- that’s what the winner of APPT Macau will walk away with after the prize pool for the event broke the $2 million mark with a final field of 429. ... Payout is to the top 48 players from a HKD 48,400 (approx. USD $6,245) minimum spot to a first place prize of HKD 4,194,000 (approx. USD 541,016).

A total of 429 players were out in force for APPT Macau Season 3 with a strong showing from the Australians (59 players), Americans (56 players) and players from Hong Kong (32 players)."

John gives his own account of Day 1: "I just finished my first day of the tourney. I started with 20,000 in chips and finished with just over 55,000 thanks to a lucky double up right at the end (with less than 15 minutes left). I was getting tired and someone pushed all in on top of a big raise that I made and I foolishly called. I had AT and he had AQ but I caught a ten on the river for a double up. He was slightly annoyed. I really thought I was out right at the end of the day. That would have been annoying. I did bust someone out though toward the beginning of the day, so I'm happy about that. Playing 7 hours of poker in a row is hard and now I have tomorrow to look forward to!"

"Day 2: Field of 196 make the cut for start of Day 2

The field of 429 players has halved here at the start of Day 2 of Asia's richest record breaking poker tour. The total prize pool is HKD $16,130,400 (about US $2,000,000) which makes it the biggest prize pool ever in Asia. ... The current chip leader is Kristoffer Myhre from Norway who has 183,400. In second place is Peter Nielsen from Denmark with 141,500. In third place is PokerStars Online Qualifier Roel Pijpers from Netherlands with 125,500.

"Johnny Macau" started Day 2 in 47th place out of the 196 left in the tournament, with 55,200 chips.

9.10pm: After a long bubble period generally comes the action.

John S. has been sent to the cashier after getting his last chips in with the best hand {A-Spades}{8-Clubs}, but there weren't enough chips to scare away Joshua Ang who gambled with his {J-Spades}{7-Spades}. Steger hit the {8-Spades}{3-Hearts}{6-Hearts} flop to maintain his lead, as the {6-Diamonds} turn changed nothing. However the river was the {J-Diamonds} to pair Ang's jack and send Steger to the rail in 47th place. Meanwhile Ang has a couple of huge towers of chips in front of him which we guestimate at around 300,000."

John gives his own account of his finish: "I busted out of the tournament today with 10 minutes left in the day. I was short of chips (I fluctuated from starting with 55,000 up to 130,000 and toward the end back to around 50,000) and pushed all in with A8 and got called by J7. He caught a jack on the river to beat me. Oh well. Luckily for me though, the bubble had just broken and I finished in the money at 47th place earning me just over $6000. It's HKD $48,400 at whatever the current exchange rate is."

Not bad against some of the best poker players in the world. Not bad at all.